BARTLESVILLE Ã¢Â€Â” A 33-year-old Bartlesville man was sentenced to 40 years in prison in the 2008 hit-and-run death of a bicyclist.

District Judge Curtis DeLapp on Friday sentenced William Burton Livingston III to 40 years in prison on a charge of first-degree manslaughter.

Livingston was convicted in the Oct. 10, 2008, death of Joseph Purrington, 21, in a collision that occurred in the 3400 Block of Frank Phillips Boulevard.

Livingston, who was reportedly drunk at the time of the crash, repeatedly has stated he did not remember what happened.

Witnesses reported Livingston was traveling on Frank Phillips Boulevard at speeds ranging from 60 to 100 mph in heavy traffic and had swerved to avoid a crash with another vehicle when the Pontiac Vibe he was driving struck PurringtonÃ¢Â€Â™s bicycle.

Purrington, who had taken his bike for a ride to the store, died at the scene of blunt trauma to the head and body. Livingston continued driving through two traffic lights and to his home in the 4700 Block of Frank Phillips Boulevard. Witnesses followed him to the house and waited for police to arrive, a police affidavit stated.

Livingston, who told probation and parole officers in his presentence investigation that he thinks about Purrington every day and prays for his family, plead guilty in November 2009 to charges of manslaughter and leaving the scene of the accident.

DeLapp sentenced Livingston to 50 years in prison with 40 years to serve on the manslaughter charge and 10 years in prison Ã¢Â€Â” to run concurrentlyÃ¢Â€Â” for leaving the scene. Livingston, who had been out of jail on $100,000 bond since his arrest, is back in custody at Washington County Detention Center awaiting transport to a state prison.

That being said, bicyclist today are almost obnoxious hogging the highway, riding side by side, demanding their legal right to use the roadway and then disobeying most traffic rules by running stop signs, traffic lights, swerving in and out of cars in a traffic jam and a laundry list of other offenses.

I'll gladly yield to a bike but totally see why they can mowed down by even the most careful driver!

IF you ride a bike and demand the legal right to use a roadway, obey the laws that pertain to that roadway as well.